1 Corinthians 12:9

If we hold that the substitution of ἑτέρῳ for ἄλλῳ is not accidental, the gifts which follow should have a different character from the two preceding, and this new character ought to reappear identically in the five gifts enumerated down to the following ἑτέρῳ (end of 1 Corinthians 12:10). Now it is easy to prove that it is so. The two preceding gifts were exercised in virtue of a communication of light; the following five proceed from a communication of force, in other words, from an influence of the spirit, no longer specially on the understanding, but on the will. By faith the apostle certainly does not understand saving faith in general; for this is not a special gift, it is the portion of all Christians. Faith is the root of the Christian life, not one of its fruits. We see clearly from the passage 1 Corinthians 13:2 that the apostle distinguishes between faith in general and faith as a particular gift. As such, it is the possession of salvation taking the character of assurance in God, of heroic daring, resolutely attacking and surmounting all the obstacles which are opposed to the work of God in a given situation. “Father, I know that Thou hearest me always!” Such is the cry of this faith which removes mountains, and of which the history of the Church affords so many examples; witness a Francke, a Wilberforce, a George Müller, and so many others. It is to this gift the saying of Jesus, Matthew 17:20-21 refers. The preposition ἐν, in or by, indicates that the force of this confidence rests on the Holy Spirit's indwelling in the soul.

There follow the gifts of healings, which are closely connected with faith thus understood, for they have as their basis confidence in the power of God applied to disease. here there is not only a confident prayer; there is a command given in the consciousness of complete harmony with the will of God, such as the: “Rise, and walk,” of St. Peter (Acts 3:6). The substantives gifts and healings are put in the plural as relating to the different classes of sicknesses to be healed.